The 'Destiny' Fanbase Has Raised $500K For Charity Ahead Of Its Second Annual Convention

The big Destiny story of the fall will be the release of Rise of Iron, new, transformative DLC that may be the game’s last before the arrival of Destiny 2 next year. But before that happens, the collective Destiny fanbase has gotten together for a pair of events that are hitting some impressive milestones.

The Destiny Community Convention, or “DestinyCon,” is tomorrow in Tampa, Florida. Ahead of the event itself, the organizers have put on a charity stream that has so far raised $375,000 for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, with a goal of $400,000 by the end of the day (Update: the stream actually surpassed $500K in donations by the time it ended). Fans have donated via a rotating collection of 42 Destiny streamers over the past week, and the result is the single largest donation St. Jude’s has ever gotten from a gaming-based charity event.

I spoke with King Gothalion, a well-known Destiny streamer, and one of the key organizers of the charity stream and DestinyCon itself, along with Kmagic101 and ProfessorBroman. Gothalion explains how all this is possible, organizing events that require the cooperation of dozens of high-profile streamers and thousands of fans.

“When Professor Broman and I started [playing] Destiny we didn't know we would be in the position on Twitch that we are,” Gothalion says. “But we sat down when things started going well and had a talk. [We wanted] to never compete with each other. To always promote growing streamers and focus on directory building within a mindset of positivity. Be welcoming and helpful to those who are nice people. Twitch is cutthroat. It was our belief that eliminating that cutthroat nature would help everyone, including ourselves. Others adopted that mindset. That's how we became tight-knit. That's how we had a meet-up last year with 1,000 people and 30 content creators.”

Last year’s DestinyCon was practically an improvised event, meant to be a little larger than a normal meet-up, but nothing the size of a full convention. But while 400 were expected to attend, 1,000 showed up, and this year, Gothalion says that they estimate that 3,000 and 4,000 people will be coming to the 2016 event.

King Gothalion (Photo: Twitch)

“
DCC 2015 was an accident, and it was glorious,” Gothalion says, and he’s hoping to attract even bigger crowds and more vendors for future events.

Interestingly, Bungie and Activision have absolutely nothing to do with DestinyCon, as it’s run entirely by these streamers, coordinated in particular by Kmagic101. Gothalion believes that they’re taking a “wait and see” approach to the event, and he hopes that they will choose to get involved at some point. Given that the event focuses on charity, community and of course, the game itself, it stands to reason that Bungie might consider making it “official” at some point. Bungie has previously worked closely with streamers like Gothalion and Broman when it comes to rolling out new game content, and it would seem like working with them on events like these would be the next logical step forward.

The day-long event will feature laser tag, a chill “Tower” area for hanging out and meeting up, and a number panels led by community leaders on different topics. Gothalion is hosting a streaming-focused event, while Broman has one about app development. Guardian Outpost is leading a podcasting panel, while MyNameisByf will be speaking about YouTube.

The ongoing charity stream with Professor Broman (Photo: Twitch)

It is unusual to see a community where nearly all of the most famous streamers and content creators are seemingly friends. Other games have their own share of celebrities, but they also have frequent drama, feuds and toxicity. Destiny is no stranger to fan complaints about different aspects of the game, but in the last two years, there have been surprisingly few issues within the community or its leaders, and they’ve shown the ability to come together outside of any official guidance by Bungie to do things like this charity stream and convention.

If you want to watch and donate to the stream, you can check it out here, and there’s more information about DestinyCon itself here. I would not be surprised to see this event expand further in the coming years, and it’s been fascinating to see its development so far.